Jacques Laffitte (24 October 1767 – 26 May 1844) was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy.
He rebounded financially in 1836 with his creation of the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie, a forerunner of French investment banks of the second half of the 19th century such as the Crédit Mobilier (1852).
In 1788, at 21 years of age and on the eve of the Revolution in France, he arrived in Paris at the offices of the prominent Swiss banker Jean-Frédéric Perregaux (1744–1808), rue du Sentier, where he was hired as a bookkeeper.
The capital resources of such early 19th century banks were limited, but they associated for underwriting major government loans and for financing promising private business ventures.
Laffitte associated with Delessert, Hottinguer, James de Rothschild and others to compete in 1817–18 with the powerful foreign banks of Baring Brothers (London) and Hope & Company (Amsterdam) for underwriting shares in France's loans of liberation.
Earlier, in 1816, he took the lead with Delessert in founding the Compagnie Royale d'Assurances Maritimes,a pioneer joint-stock insurance company with a capitalization of 10 million francs.
He was sufficiently wealthy by then to be able to purchase the 17th century Château de Maisons (Department of Yvelines),near Paris, designed by the famous architect François Mansart.
It was "le rêve d'un parvenu" (the dream of a newly rich) at a time when family history, titles and property holdings mattered so much.
[5] In 1821–1822, Laffitte was the moving spirit behind the formation of the Compagnie des Quatre Canaux, a joint-stock company that mobilized the capital assets of haute banque members to help finance a major canal construction program initiated by the government.
It had the backing of French industrialists, many haute banque members in Paris and leading banking houses in London, Geneva and Frankfort.
Like his fellow elected deputy and banker Casimir Pierre Périer, he took a liberal stance "on the left" and spoke out in the Chamber in support of constitutional monarchy, liberty of the press, freedom of enterprise, competence in state administration and transparency in government financial affairs.
With Casimir Perier, he led a spirited opposition in the Chamber in the 1820s against Comte Villèle's handling of the finances of the government's canal construction program.
Fearful of growing liberal and even republican opposition to his government, the king finally acted disastrously in 1829 by installing the ultra-royalist ministry of Prince Jules de Polignac.
To moderate liberals in the Chamber of Deputies like Casimir Perier, and even for the king himself, his dealings with popular revolutionary figures such as General Lafayette were moving France dangerously toward the establishment of a republic.
Laffitte at least managed to protect the Château de Maisons from sale, but he divided up its extensive parklands into lots for building country villas to sell to rich Parisians.
His nephew, Charles Laffitte (1803–1875), and his son-in-law, the Prince de Moskowa, added a grassland horse racing track – the first in France.
He created (15 July 1837) the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie to help provide long-term credit for industrial enterprise.
"[14] Undoubtedly, had he lived longer, Laffitte would have led the Caisse Générale enthusiastically into the risky business of financing railroad construction in France.
Bonin has noted that by 1843 the company had already edged into the field with a 10 million franc loan for railroad construction by the Compagnie du Nord.
Goüin wrote in his unpublished autobiography that, in his experience, the design failure of the company was that it could not cope adequately with both its long-term investments and its short-term commercial loans during times of financial crisis.